Midnight Special (song)

"Midnight Special"
Song
Published	1905
Genre	Country blues
Writer(s)	Traditional

"Midnight Special" is a traditional folk song thought to have originated among prisoners in the American South. The title comes from the refrain, which refers to the passenger train Midnight Special and its "ever-loving light" (sometimes "ever-living light"):

Let the Midnight Special shine her light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine her ever-loving light on me

The song is historically performed in the country-blues style from the viewpoint of the prisoner and has been covered by many artists.

Lyrics appearing in the song were first recorded in print by Howard Odum in 1905:

Get up in the mornin' when ding dong rings,
Look at table — see the same damn thing

The first printed reference to the song itself was in a 1923 issue of Adventure magazine, a three-times-a-month pulp magazine published by the Ridgway Company. In 1927 Carl Sandburg published two different versions of "Midnight Special" in his The American Songbag, the first published versions.

The song was first commercially recorded on the OKeh label in 1926 as "Pistol Pete's Midnight Special" by Dave "Pistol Pete" Cutrell (a member of McGinty's Oklahoma Cow Boy Band). Cutrell follows the traditional song except for semi-comedic stanzas about McGinty and Gray and "a cowboy band":

Now, Mister McGinty is a good man
But he's run away now with a cowboy band
Refrain

Now Otto Gray, he's a Stillwater man
But he's manager now of a cowboy band
Refrain

In March 1929, the band, now Otto Gray and the Oklahoma Cowboys, recorded the song again, this time with the traditional title using only the traditional lyrics.

Sam Collins recorded the song commercially in 1927 under the title "The Midnight Special Blues" for Gennett Records. His version also follows the traditional style. His is the first to name the woman in the story, Little Nora, and he refers to the Midnight Special's "ever-living" light:

Yonder come a Little Nora. How in the world do you know?
I know by the apron and the dress she wears

In 1934 Huddie William "Lead Belly" Ledbetter recorded a version of the song at Angola Prison for John and Alan Lomax, who mistakenly attributed it to him as the author. However, Ledbetter, for his Angola session, appears to have inserted several stanzas relating to a 1923 Houston jailbreak into the traditional song. Ledbetter recorded at least three versions of the song, one with the Golden Gate Quartet, a gospel group (recorded for RCA at Victor Studio #2, New York City, June 15, 1940).

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Wikipedia